REVIVING AFGHAN ART

Posted by Lianne Gutcher at 19:30 on 17 Feb 2010

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While military operations continued in Helmand yesterday, my attention turned to art, not war, in Kabul.

I went to see the first students graduate from the Institute for Afghan Arts and Architecture.

The Institute comes under the Turquoise Mountain (TM) umbrella, the organisation run by Rory Stewart - erstwhile tutor to Princes William and Harry, author, traveller, adventurer and, according to Tatler magazine, one of the most eligible bachelors in the UK. Orlando Bloom is to apparently star as Stewart in a forthcoming biopic. He also has the reputation of being very charming. Sadly, I have never been on the receiving end of any of the Stewart charm.

Anyway, I digress.

The kids were dressed up the nines for the ceremony - killer heels and sparkly headscarves for the girls, and shiny suits for the guys. One was rocking a tailored tartan jacket.

The Institute is the first place in Afghanistan to offer vocational training in the arts. Afghanistan has a long history of arts and architecture - the 6th century buddhas in Bamiyan that the Taliban dynamited in 2001 being among the most famous. But the system of passing knowledge from master to student has broken down with 30 years of war and conflict, and art has been sidelined. The Institute, which has schools of woodwork, ceramics, calligraphy and painting, and jewellery and gem-cutting, is trying to re-establish this in a more academic way. The great thing about the Institute is that it not only teaches the kids but afterwards helps them get places to study in Kabul or internationally, or set up their own workshops. One kid in the School of Woodwork is set for an eighth-month apprenticeship at Windsor Castle.

When I was decorating my house I bought a piece of calligraphy from TM and it never fails to attract compliments from visitors, Afghan or International.

I am looking forward to seeing more of the jewellery. The School of Jewellery and Gem-Cutting was later to start up so the first graduates will come next year but I have seen some pieces and they are gorgeous. And a couple of the students are already getting commissions.

At the graduation, I ran into Wise Ass Yank.

"Get any good quotes?" he asked. "I spoke to a 15-year-old. Youngest graduate. Couldn't have come up with something better if I'd had to make it up. I asked him why he wanted to study calligraphy. He told me: 'Calligraphy is mostly concerned with aesthetics and beauty. It is like food for my soul'."

And so the fight against the Taliban in Marjah goes on. It would be nice to think that this really is the "beginning of the end" of years of conflict and that, in the not-so-distant future, those who want to live peaceful lives, creating things of beauty and nourishing their souls, will have a bit more of a chance to do so.

Photos: Turquoise Mountain

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